“No decision has yet been made. We are considering various options,” Yann Guerin, the spokesman for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) told The Independent.

Should we expect a decision soon? Mr Guerin could not say. A spokesman for David Beckham says that a decision is likely in the next two or three weeks.

An investigation by The Independent this week has picked up no trace of any attempt by PSG to invite, or study, candidatures by children’s charities in the Paris area. Groups which have written to the club have received only a brief, pro-forma letter in response. No follow-up approaches have so far been made.

Of course, deciding which charity is most worthy of the reported €200,000 a week Beckham and PSG agreed upon takes time and it's not like both parties haven't been busy. Beckham went on an excursion in China, taking free kicks in a suit as the country's first global football ambassador. PSG executives were probably right in the middle of reading some really good books that they just had to finish before thinking about anything else. But now that Beckham and PSG have been knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona, they have a bit more free time on their hands to devote to this charity business.

A spokesman for David Beckham told The Independent: “We have had hundreds of requests from Paris and far beyond. It takes time to go through all the possibilities and make sure that a seven-figure sum is spent in the best possible way.”

“I think we will be in a position to identify projects in Paris and maybe more widely in France by the end of this month.”

So with a timetable set, this promise appears to be on the up and up. But if the project they identify is The Human Fund, there will be cause for concern.